For a country with limited resources in terms of the number of handball players, Slovenia have constantly outdone themselves, with excellent talent being brought in front, true stalwarts being developed over the last years, which enabled the senior team to stay relevant, even in the context of a generational change.

This will be the sixth consecutive edition of the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship where Slovenia feature on the card, yet this generation will have plenty to improve from their previous performance in a major international tournament after they ended up on the 11th place at the M18 EHF EURO 2022.

Last summer, Slovenia had only two wins under their belt, against Montenegro and the Faroe Islands, too little for a country which was used to good performances, one that finished in the top 10 at the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship in their first three appearances, with a silver medal sealed in 2015.

That was a generation boasting Blaž Janc, Jaka Malus or Aleks Vlah in their roster, with Slovenia failing to produce that same amount of talent, albeit they have some natural born scorers in this squad, with Nejc Hriberšek, Malik Mlivic or Mai Marguč shining in the previous competitions.

If Slovenia want to return to the top 10 of the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship, their work will be cut out, with a difficult path towards the knockout phase as their game against Hungary is due to shape the outcome of their performance at Croatia 2023 before a main round where they could face hosts Croatia.

Key players: Mai Marguč (right back), Nejc Hriberšek (centre back), Malik Mlivic (left back)
Qualification for Croatia 2023: M18 EHF EURO 2022 – 11th place 
History in the tournament: 2011: 9th, 2013: 8th, 2015: 2nd, 2017: 13th, 2019: 15th 
Group at Croatia 2023: Group B (Hungary, Slovenia, Morocco, New Zealand)